A poll was recenlty commissioned by a counter-extremism think tank revealed that 46 percent of British Muslims sympathize with Hamas. It also found that 3 out of 4 do not believe the Islamic terrorist organization committed murder or rape during the October 7 massacre in Israel.
39 percent of British Muslims reportedly believe Hamas did not commit any atrocities that day.
The survey was released on the 6 month anniversary of the attack and is the largest of its kind to be carried out since October 7. It asked a large variety of questions to British Muslims specifically, as well as the general public. It was commissioned by the Henry Jackson Society and carried out by JL partners. The poll sampled 1,000 representative British Muslims between Feb 14 and Mar 12, 2024 with a 3.1% margin of error, and compared these results with a nationally representative sample of 2,013 UK adults between 04-06 Mar, 2024, with a margin of error of 2.2%.
When asked specifically about Jews, 46 percent of Muslims thought that they have too much power over the UK government and 41 percent believe they have too much power in the media industry. 39 percent said Jews have too much power in UK finance.
A third of British Muslims want Shariah law implemented in the UK.
Fiyaz Mughal, founder of interfaith groups Tell Mama, Faith Matters, and Muslims Against Anti-Semitism, said the results were “shocking but also not shocking," per The Telegraph.
"Hamas is an Islamist extremist and terrorist group and has been terrorising Gazans, Israelis and liberals within society for decades," he said. "The sense that Hamas did not conduct massacres and rapes in Israel is atrocious because it shows a closed-off mentality to anything emanating from Israel."
He continued: "The findings confirm that a lot of work needs to be done to inform, challenge, and address old anti-Semitic tropes that are still circulating among some of my co-religionists."
"The Government has got to provide better guidance for teachers, schools and education establishments. The investment needs to happen as soon as possible because we are at real risk of a social cohesion problem."
A UK Government spokesperson said: "We have recently set out a series of measures which will promote social cohesion and counter religious hatred. Our plan will tackle division in our communities and ensure that we are protecting our democratic freedoms across the country."
On October 7, 2023, Hamas invaded Israel in a surprise attack that killed around 1,200 citizens. They also kidnapped 253 people and kept them hostage. 134 hostages remain in captivity.
